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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Whizzing Westward

Saturday

Despite our need to get west as quickly as possible, we did take some to enjoy the roses, so to speak. While researching the top parks in the US, I saw the name “Dinosaur National Monument” and the picture associated with it was a fossil in a rock. I immediately wanted to go there and scope it out. The chance to see fossils in the earth was a totally awesome opportunity in my mind. So, as we made our way west, we detoured through the mountains to northwest Colorado and northeast Utah to the monument. To make things interesting, when looking for a camping space, we got a bit stuck. We had to air down our tires and place sticks in the way for the tires to grab.

Turns out, they do actually have a “quarry” of dinosaur fossils that they have preserved for future generations. it was pretty sweet. I felt like a child again, getting excited about dinosaurs. I even made Jonathan go on the Fossil Discovery Trail, where we could discover small fossils on our own. Quite enjoyable, at least for me.

Most of the bones are in a jumble in this rock face, but there were a few that remained intact with their connecting bones.

This thigh bone is nearly bigger than me.

Finding fossils on the trail. You can the see the vertebrae of a dinosaur here.

There were also petroglyphs in other parts of the park. I think the peoples who did these were awfully bored or showing off to a female, as they had to climb up and hang on for dear life to draw some of these.

Sunday

We decided to visit our transmission-mission saviors from last year. We pulled in Sunday afternoon and hijacked the remainder of their day. Then it was decided that we should go camp at the Big Eddy outside of town. On the way there, we ran into a thunderstorm complete with hail and lightning. The storm shortly passed however, and we were treated to a double rainbow and a lovely sunset.

Hail.

It is apparently really difficult to get all of a rainbow in a picture.

Breakfast.

Monday

After our departure from Driggs, we decided to do a quick tour of Craters of the Moon National Park (after driving half of Idaho). Apparently, the US has a dormant cinder cone volcano similar to what we boarded down in Nicaragua. This one didn’t have enough loose ash or steep-enough sides, but it did look a bit similar, despite the age difference.

The dormant cinder cone volcano.

The splatter cones, which are mini volcanoes, were pretty cool. Surprisingly, the walls were really fragile. They were almost like a wall of bricks without mortar. Well, you know, minus the size and and shape… Only the friction and shape was keeping the chunks of the walls together.

Small volcanoes (that is a trail, not a road).

By the time we had done the tour, we were tired, so we decided to camp there for the night.